A lot of these bands came around as I was at an entry-level point in listening to music, and did most of that via Radio 1 in the evening, so the only bands on here I can honestly say I NEVER enjoyed AT ALL, not even one song aged 14, are OCS, Stereophonics, Gomez, Kula Shaker, Travis and Supernaturals. I'm lowering the bar here to, let's say "lol blind cobbler's thumbs"

I hated Sleeper when I had to see them in the music press every week, but I probably wouldn't be too bothered either way by the first few singles now, I thought a couple of them were a'right before I'd read anything about the band. At the time Space and Gomez made me most angry but I think now it's got to be Reef or the Stereophonics. Helps that I don't remember anything Gomez recorded.

There is no Echobelly or Tiny Monroe, for I suppose fairly obvious similar reasons.

(Though NV's post reminds me that maybe OCS deserve it for being the first band to be quite so blatant about removing any hints, however slight they were already, of FUN or LOUD or pretending to sound slightly NEW in favour of total Weller-worshipping drear, thus paving the way for Travis or the Stereophonics to ditch their dirgier rockier beginnings for utter ear-sandpapering ubiquity, or... something)

I hated Sleeper when I had to see them in the music press every week, but I probably wouldn't be too bothered either way by the first few singles now, I thought a couple of them were a'right before I'd read anything about the band. At the time Space and Gomez made me most angry but I think now it's got to be Reef or the Stereophonics. Helps that I don't remember anything Gomez recorded.

I suppose that a lot of the hate on my part just comes from them and the other bands above being "NME music" and it was the media ubiquity rather than the music itself that was the problem. Now that I don't work in a record store or listen to the radio I never have to hear these bands again, and if I did accidentally hear them it probably wouldn't bother me that much

ok everyone probably thinks of this as old news and I'm not the Anglophile I used to be, so could someone please explain/point me towards the Nazi outburst from KulaShaker because this is the first time I've heard of it and it explains so much about why ppl loathe them

Crispian: (in reference to his vegetarian beliefs that killing animals is just as bad as killing humans) The principle is we've got a violent society, we always go on about the virtues of peace but we aren't living a peaceful lifestyle

New Musical Express: It's an obvious comparison, but Hitler was a vegetarian who had no qualms about murdering humans, babies included, by the thousands.

Crispian: Right, but Hitler knew a lot more than he made out. Hitler and his whole gang weren't just a bunch of f___ing psychos, they were also into magic and all that. I mean, talking about ruffling feathers with statements in magazines, I love the swastika. It's a brilliant image, it symbolises peace and the sun and illumination - it's everywhere in India. I'd love to have great big flaming swastikas onstage just for the f__k of it. It's like, that was Hitler, don't let him steal something like that from you. I mean the Nazis studied the Vedas, the Scriptures, the Holy Grail, but they were just using it as a power trip.

New Musical Express: You have a sneaking admiration for Hitler don't you?

Crispian: No...but it's a shame the baddies always get the good uniforms. Ha ha! [3].

thing about OCS that everyone forgets: they completely changed their sound! They weren't always this plodding, retro band with no feeling to their music. Their first album was quite different and the song "Sway", a single from it, was pretty good! But it didn't sell and so they went and did something a bit more obvious, which worked for them, but was hell for us (or me, at least).

Wener as a personality was awful but I like some Sleeper singles. V much a singles band tho. Could never maintain consistency across an album.

Reef don't belong here. They prolly belong less than 3 Colours Red to be honest. Sure they may be contemporary with these other bands but they have no real connectivity with them otherwise. I think they had no illusions that they were doing anything at all original, they even called themselves Reef coz it was an anagram of their fave band, Free.

As I remember, the "nazi thing" was that a/crispy had been in a band with some dude who was in a far right org and b/some swastika-redeemer type comments from crispy in an ill-advised NME interview + ooh the nazis, they were into their dark okkult/magick blablabla. Also c/lol, the britishes and their funny class system.

Most of these bands at least had the decency to bugger off after a couple of singles (Bluetones, Reef, Longpigs). I liked Space - most of the others blow. Voted for Stereophonics, because they managed to reach semi-Oasis levels of twatishness and unjustified arrogance in relation to their actual ability. But Menswear (Menswe@r?) come in a close second as a really crap boy band version of Suede.